Last week the Missouri Department of Social Services released the Monthly Management Report for the Family Support Division and MO HealthNet Division for July 2024. [dss.mo/re]
No surprises. Temporary Assistance remains a shell of its former size and food stamps – despite a federal court ruling that Missouri is not making the program as ADA accessible and available to citizens as law requires – feeds far, far fewer citizens than it ought.
Missouri Violated SNAP Law and the ADA
No, the closest thing to news in the report is the continued degradation of MO HealthNet, as the state calls its Medicaid program. July is the first month of the state Fiscal Year, so, let’s look at some July numbers from recent years…
July Total MO HealthNet Eligible (Covered) Individuals
2024 1,292,986 – 217,086 – 12% (from 7/23)
2023 1,510,082
2022 1,338,909
2021 1,144,379
MO HealthNet has seven component categories. Only one category saw an increase in the past year.
2024 2023
Disabled 125,835 167,447
Elderly 92,467 95,667
Custodial Parents 82,878 118,892
Children 604,970 731,220
Pregnant Women 32,895 33,261
Adult Expansion 329,306 350,795
Women’s Health 24,645 12,800
As I’ve covered before, getting Medicaid in this state if you are disabled is a horror movie. Why would over 41,000 people who got to the happy ending give up what they worked so hard to get? Why would parents pull over 126,000 kids away from health care?
The answer, of course, is that patients are not choosing to give up anything. The state is stealing it from them.
Don’t worry, it gets worse. The budget passed by the super majority Republican legislature requires Medicaid to keep shrinking.
The plan is simple. Make the entitlement impossible to access through a lack of staff and resources, holding the baby against the bottom of the tub until it drowns.
Yes, it is that harsh.
We know that a lack of access to timely health care decreases quality of life. It is obviously a factor in Missouri’s horrid maternal health numbers. And, now that childhood vaccinations are essentially optional we can expect outbreaks of preventable diseases to burn through schools.
Again, this is not an accident. This is The Missouri Way.
Glenn Koenen
Image Source: Missouri Healthnet Enrollment Tracker